May Day PROG 2014
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39th People’s Gala & Demonstration £1 CHESTERFIELD TRADES COUNCIL Monday 2nd May 2016 ASSEMBLE: Town Hall 10.30am RALLY: New Square 11.45am DEMONSTRATION Assemble at CHESTERFIELD TOWN HALL at 10.30am March Off at 11.00am (See inside of back cover for route) RALLY NEW SQUARE: 11.45am Speakers: Tosh McDonald President Amalgamated Society of Locomotive Engineers & Firemen Jane Loftus President Communications Workers Union Toby Perkins MP for Chesterfield Raya Ziyaei Refugee Solidarity Campaigner MAY DAY at a GLANCE 9.00am - 4.00pm Stalls and Entertainment in New Square 10.30am March Assembles 10.45am Jill Brunt will address the marchers from the Town Hall Steps on “Women, Austerity and Pension Poverty” 11.00am March Off 11.45am Rally & Speeches in New Square 1.00pm Sheffield Socialist Choir in Market Hall Assembly Rooms 12.30pm - 4.00pm Live Entertainment in New Square (page 18-19) 12.30pm Faith and Branko 1.40pm Bikini Beach Band 2.50pm Bleeding Hearts “Folk-Punk for Punk-Folk” 2 Contents Page Welcome to Chesterfield’s 2015 May Day Event 4 - 5 Tosh McDonald 6 - 8 Jane Loftus 9 - 11 Raya Ziyaei 12 - 13 Toby Perkins 14 - 15 South Yorkshire Freedom Riders 16 - 17 FREE Concert in New Square 18 - 19 A Cooperative Manifesto for Chesterfield - a work in progress 20 - 21 Chesterfield’s other anti-war MP 22 - 24 International Solidarity in the Great Miners' Strike 25 - 26 Unite in Sports Direct - Shirebrook Project 28 - 29 Derbyshire Asbestos Support Team’s Panel Solicitors 31 Shock deaths amongst former Staveley Chemical workers 32 Asbestos: The hidden threat in many school buildings 33 May Day Route 35 The People’s Anthems 36 Chesterfield May Day Gala would like to thank Ruane Transport of Chesterfield for the use of their trailer in New Square. Leading the march this year The Ireland Colliery Band 3 Welcome to Chesterfield’s 2016 May Day march and ralley The sight of David Cameron returning to Downing Street just days after our May Day rally in 2015 came as a blow. Back in office, the Tories have redoubled their austerity measures singling out the most vulnerable for attack. In the immediate aftermath of the election many in our movement felt on the ropes. However, we have seen signs of recovery, against difficult conditions, in the trade union movement, in social movements and in the political field. The Labour Party leadership election James Eaden, President Chesterfield & District TUC campaign and the decisive victory of migrant workers. Inspired by Jeremy Corbyn reflected and helped to successful campaigns overseas in the galvanise a growing shift towards left USA and New Zealand (where the wing ideas and values in Britain, government has just outlawed zero especially amongst young people. The hours contracts) the Bakers Union has “Corbyn phenomenon” is not unique launched a Fast Food Rights campaign to the UK; we can see its echoes in the focusing on young workers in this insurgent campaign led by Bernie exploitative industry. They are already Sanders in the US and in the chalking up some real successes and development of new left forces in we welcome their organisers at this countries like Greece, Spain and year’s May Day. Ireland. The key to the rebuilding of our movement is to harness this energy The struggle of the Junior Doctors, and enthusiasm. against the imposition of an “unfair and unsafe” contract has been a revelation Zero hours contracts and agency and an inspiration. The level of the working blight many workers lives. public support for the doctors’ action is Tireless campaigning by Unite has put phenomenal, as seen on strikes days, real pressure on Sports Direct, and in with members of the public queuing to this brochure Cheryl Pidgeon outlines sign their petition in town. This their innovative campaigning work campaign goes to the heart of which both challenges the company’s defending the NHS, which the Tories employment practices, and seeks to are hell bent on destroying. undermine divisive racism faced by 4 We once again welcome Toby Perkins outpouring of solidarity and support. to our stage. Toby always shows great But we have also seen a more worrying support for local trade unionists in response; the rise of racism often struggle, most recently visiting junior stoked by sections of the media and doctors on the picket lines at Calow. mainstream politicians as well as by the Our two guest trade union speakers far right. Attacks on Muslims have represent workers who have been at tripled in Britain, in Slovakia an openly the forefront of resisting Tory Nazi party came third in the popular privatisation: Jane Loftus and Tosh vote, in Germany far right groups are McDonald. marching on the streets and there have The refugee crisis and the racist been firebomb attacks on refugee backlash against it has thrown up a hostels. The scenes at Trump election huge challenge for anti-racists in rallies in the USA remind us of the Britain and across Europe and our ability of right wing racists to gain an third guest speaker today Raya Ziyaei is audience. Standing up to racism and one of the many activists who have defending the rights of refugees to dedicated time and effort to delivering sanctuary are key tasks for the whole practical support to refugees. The trade union movement. horrific drownings in the Have a great May Day here in Mediterranean Sea and the shocking Chesterfield. Enjoy the march & rally, images of the young Kurdish child browse the stalls and re-charge your Aylan Kurdi produced a huge batteries for the struggles ahead. Acknowledgements The Chesterfield & District Trades Council would like to thank all the organisations that give their support to the May Day Gala. At the time of going to print it is not possible to produce a full list of contributing bodies. But without their generosity and solidarity, May Day would simply not be possible. Thanks go to the many scores of volunteers. Their hard work in organising May Day ensures the event runs smoothly. The Chesterfield May Day Gala does great credit to the capacity of the Trade Union and Labour Movement to campaign, inform and entertain. We also thank our speakers for their support and contributions, the many organisations whose involvement gives May Day the breadth of its appeal. We thank you for attending and supporting May Day and maintaining its status as the largest and most popular May Day event in the region, if not the country. James Eaden (President), Joanne Gordon (Vice President), Shay Boyle (Secretary), on behalf of Chesterfield & District Trades Union Council . 5 Tosh McDonald ‘Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, / But to be young was very heaven!’ That’s what William Wordsworth famously wrote, about the French Revolution, and it’s bliss in this dawn to be alive, too, because these are exciting times for the Labour Party. Because in Jeremy Corbyn we have a leader who believes in the values at the heart of the labour movement and who proposes to run on a platform, in 2020, which will excite those voters put off politics by the focus group obsession of the New Labour years. ‘The Labour Party,’ as Harold Wilson Tosh McDonald once memorably said, ‘is a moral and how we can now put it right. crusade or it is nothing.’ Jeremy understands that and that is why ASLEF We need a Labour government, led by endorsed Jeremy when he was Jeremy, committed to putting our campaigning to become Labour Party fragmented, privatised, old-fashioned leader; why we endorsed Tom Watson railway back together as a modern, as deputy leader; and why we endorsed integrated, and publicly-owned Sadiq Khan as Mayor of London. transport system fit for the 21st century. Jeremy is proud – not ashamed, as We know that privatisation doesn’t some leaders of the Labour Party have work. The model is broken and the been – to talk about public ownership. franchise system is selling Britain – He understands that ordinary people passengers, taxpayers, and those of are suffering in this Conservative Age of who work on the railway – short. In the Austerity that redistributes wealth from last twenty years, since John Major the poorest to the richest to bail out privatised our industry – a privatisation, the bankers, who caused the economic incidentally, which even Margaret crisis – and the financial crash – back in Thatcher described as ‘a privatisation 2008. Jeremy wants to rebuild Britain too far’ – we have seen our rolling as a fairer, more modern society, with a stock get older, our trains get more more productive economy that delivers crowded, and our fares go through the for the many, not just for the few. roof. We now have the highest fares in Western Europe – because of the The railway industry – the industry in Tories’ ideological obsession with which I have worked all my life – is a privatisation. perfect example of what has gone wrong 6 And it’s not just the railway. It’s time to bring back into public ownership not just our railway but all those key parts of the British economy – such as the Royal Mail and the public utilities like gas, water and electricity – which are natural monopolies and which properly belong to the British people. Back in the early 1980s I was living in the pit village of Edlington. Although none of us were miners, we enjoyed that community. Perhaps because Tosh McDonald supporting the Care UK strikers in mining and the railway have been Doncaster. intertwined in this country for a couple Two years ago I attended a number of of centuries.